Attentional Systems in Humans and Monkeys

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Recent studies of human attention have uncovered a possible divide in the cortical areas underlying goal-directed attention and those underlying stimulus-driven reorienting of attention. The ventral frontoparietal system underlying stimulus-driven reorienting is of particular interest since it seems that damage to this system results in the syndrome of spatial neglect. Since many studies of this system take place in the macaque, our understanding of this frontoparietal system's role in attention will be greatly enhanced by understanding whether this model of attention generalizes to the macaque. I propose to perform a pair of experiments that will further our understanding of the homology between macaque and human frontoparietal systems underlying goal-directed control and stimulus-driven reorienting of attention. We will do this by classifying the degree of homology between the attention-related areas in both species according to function, topographic organization, and location. The results of these experiments will not only improve our understanding of the.attention system in both species, but will also serve as a guide to future fMRI and electrophysiological investigations of attention.